By Rich Mancuso/ Sports Editor
Not What The Manager Ordered
Aaron Boone and Brian Cashman are out of answers. So it is for the Yankees manager and GM with their injury ward in theonx. Gary Sanchez was the latest casualty with let calf strain. So, Sanchez, the most consistent in this makeshift lineup, goes on the 10-day injured list.
They got more, though the encouraging news is CC Sabathia makes his first start of the season Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. But the Yankees are out of answers and it got worse with another setback to Dellin Betances who will need a cortisone shot to go around a bone spur behind his right shoulder.
That’s another three weeks or more before Betances can throw a ball. It could be seven weeks the way Brian Cashman was talking during a 41-minute rain delay Friday night. Before Cashman could conclude the somber news, and it has been that way in the Bronx for the Yankees, his team dropped their fourth straight, 9-6, in a rain shortened 7-inning game to the White Sox.
They lost another player to injury. Half their lineup is on the injured list and there may be no more room to hold them in the training rooms of the Bronx and down in Tampa. Betances, part of this supposed best bullpen in baseball will miss more of this unexpected time. You expect injuries as they are a part of the game.
But this injury ward in the Bronx is at epic proportions. And if Cashman wants advice all he has to do is make a call cross-town and consult the Mets who have been used to the injury ward the past few years.
“Obviously it’s a killer for a period of time,” Cashman said. “Because we’re missing him {Betances} and he’s an important part of our team.”
Important also are Miguel Andujar, Giancarlo Stanton, Luis Severino, Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks, Troy Tulowitzki. Pitchers Jordan Montgomery, Ben Heller, they are also important to a point.
Jacoby Ellsbury? He’s the forgotten name here. But the Yankees still have hope he will get on the field for the first time since October of 2017, but you should not count n that anytime soon, though who would care at this point.
The Yankees need Andujar. They need Stanton. Didi will return in a few months. Severino and his lively fastball and slider are missed. Tulowitzki, injuries have been a part of his game. So the answers coming from Brian Cashman, as they were Friday night, prior to a game being called early were long and with some gloom and doom.
You could hear the tone. The Yankees are in a dangerous territory and this is 13-games into a season that was full of promise and championship written all over them. It’s a part of the game these injuries. But not this early and not this many and the GM is well aware.
“See? Everything is going my way right now,’ Cashman said. He was trying to crack a smile.
The press conference was interrupted when he was informed the Yankees sustained their fourth straight loss, 9-6, a rain shortened 7-inning game that saw inept pitching and that lack of punch from a makeship lineup that manager Aaron Boone has to juggle.
“This game can humble you quick,” Cashman said. “This game is capable of bringing the best to their knees and question if they’re good enough anymore. I was hoping that tonight we could also solve that and start changing the narrative. Instead, we’ve added to it with more injury news and bad play.”
He added, “Tomorrow is a new day.” Yes it is a new day for the Yankees. Sabathia is off the injured list and Gary Sanchez replaces him as Number 12 in the injury ward.
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